Chia Vang, DOB 1/3/85, was charged 5/18/12 in Ramsey County District Court with kidnapping and terroristic threats for driving his wife and toddler around for six or seven hours and threatening to kill them. Photo courtesy Ramsey County sheriff’s office.

A Brooklyn Park man who kidnapped and threatened his estranged wife, driving her around for hours as she tried to get the attention of passers-by, has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

A prosecutor pointed out during the Wednesday, Sept. 19, sentencing hearing that Chia Vang said in a pre-sentence interview that the victim was “only my wife” and otherwise minimized his conduct.

Vang also said that the woman “only cried half the time” he drove with her and their 2-year-old son around the Twin Cities during the May 16 incident, said Ramsey County prosecutor Maggie Samec. A passing driver saw the woman as she mouthed, “Help me.” The driver wrote down the license plate number and called 911.

Vang, 27, was convicted of kidnapping and making terroristic threats to his wife. At Wednesday’s sentencing in Ramsey County District Court, Judge Gary Bastian gave him credit for 127 days he has served in jail and told him he must register as a predatory offender.

Vang’s attorney, David Paulzine, argued that the woman was never harmed during the incident. “His actions that day, though very misguided, were an attempt to reconcile the marriage,” Paulzine said. He asked the judge for a sentence of four to five years.

The state sought nearly 10 years.

There was trouble leading up to the incident. The 29-year-old woman had left home around May 10 with the couple’s two oldest children, ages 4 and 3, fleeing to women’s shelters after Vang choked and head-butted her, she told police.

Vang tracked her to the shelters by looking at the caller ID on her mother’s cellphone and then searching the Internet, according to the criminal complaint.

He spotted her in a car with her nephew and followed her. She asked the nephew to stop at an Asian market, where she called 911 and tried to hide.

Police arrived and let Vang walk away after he claimed he no longer had the ignition key to the Toyota he had been driving moments before, which belonged to his wife.

While she was waiting for a locksmith to make a new car key, Vang called her cellphone and told her that she would be killed and that their children would “die together,” according to the complaint.

Vang returned and dragged her into the Toyota by her clothes and hair. He drove her around for six to seven hours, sometimes very fast, while his wife begged to be released from the car, the complaint said.

Police stopped the car in Washington County and arrested Vang.

The couple were married in the Hmong tradition, he told police.

Hours after he pleaded guilty during a July 30 court appearance, Vang called his wife from the Ramsey County jail using another inmate’s identification number. He had been barred from contacting her.

He was charged Tuesday with violating an order for protection and a domestic-abuse no-contact order.

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